It’s Time For Shinra to Step Up

Fire Force is waist-deep in its climactic endgame, a phase where even the strongest Fire Force characters cannot afford to hold anything back. All the previous battles against Infernals and the White-Clad cult were just warmups compared to this final war, as Arthur Boyle’s duel with Dragon showed in Episode 21. The stakes and power levels have both reached their peak, meaning it’s time for protagonist Shinra Kusakabe to jump right back into the thick of things.

The last few Fire Force episodes actually didn’t involve Shinra that much, not since he kicked the Raffles I titan a few episodes ago. Shinra vanished after the people turned against him as the killer of a great emperor, and the heroes have been struggling in his absence. The end of Episode 21, however, suggests Shinra is about to return in a big way — or at least, the heroes urgently need him to. A few major battles still lay ahead, whether or not Company 8 can return the world to normal and shut down the Great Cataclysm partway through.

Shinra Must Overcome His Image as a Villainous Devil

Shinra Hasn’t Been Popular Recently

Ever since the Fire Force anime first aired, protagonist Shinra Kusakabe has toyed with the idea of a devil, being the sharp-toothed hero who wields the Devil’s Footprints fighting style as a fire soldier in the Tokyo Empire. It’s not uncommon for shonen anime to swap the roles of the angelic and the demonic, such as twisted bishops or cute devils and succubi, and Fire Force does much the same with Shinra himself. He’s always been a self-styled superhero in every sense, and it’s been his pleasure to save people from Infernals and other threats. More recently, though, Shinra’s devil theme has come full circle, and that may work against him in the next few episodes.

Shinra thought he’d become the world’s glorious savior in the Great Cataclysm, with all his friends at Company 8 cheering him on as he defeated the Raffles I titan while the Soul Eater moon hung overhead. Instead, the common people turned against Shinra as the devil who killed their emperor, meaning the White-Clad cult has imagery and history on its side. The White-Clad cult wants to “save” humanity in a twisted sense, hiding behind Raffles I’s historic importance to sell the idea. After that battle, Shinra ended up elsewhere, and he hasn’t been seen since. All this fighting has unfolded in his absence.

What is more, Shinra awoke with the burden of his doppelganger weighing him down. Ever since the third act of Season 3 began, Shinra has been working against his own doppelganger’s nasty reputation as a rough and unkind person, the kind who would casually hit Iris. All this adds up to mean that in Episode 22 and beyond, Shinra will likely be quite unpopular and get little support outside of Company 8 as he returns to the battle. Shinra may have to come to terms with his own darkest impulses, or at least fight off everyone’s unfairly negative image of him. After all, this is the phase where images and reality blur together, so the idea of Shinra the bad guy isn’t just some rumor. It’s part of reality, and that’s something fans might expect to see more of in Episode 22 until the anime’s conclusion.

Find all 10 pairs

Start

Restart
Back

Find all 10 pairs

Start

RestartBack

Company 8 Faces the Remaining Doppelganger Threat Without Arthur

Even Shinra Might Be Late to the Party

A few episodes ago, Fire Force terrified viewers with the dramatic arrival of a quintet of doppelgangers, who match some of the most powerful fire soldiers and other characters in the anime. The White-Clad cult’s remaining members made sure those doppelgangers arrived in time to keep the Great Cataclysm on track and hold off the heroes of Company 8, and so far, just one of those doppelgangers has seen action. Tamaki Kotatsu fought Assault’s evil twin a couple of episodes ago, meaning that elite squad is down to four surviving members. After that, Fire Force switched gears to depict Arthur’s climactic showdown with Dragon on the moon itself.

This means, with so few episodes of Fire Force remaining, it’s likely Episode 22 will see the protagonists take on the four remaining doppelgangers, either in duels or in a group fight. The anime has been surprisingly reluctant to show those doppelgangers in battle so far, but the likes of Shinmon Benimaru and Joker wouldn’t have their doppelgangers appear as mere window dressing. It’s all but certain that these Adolla-born villains will see action quite soon, and Shinra probably won’t be there to see it at first. Neither will Arthur Boyle the mighty knight, seeing how he was sliced apart in his battle with Dragon, and appears on the verge of death.

For now, Kurono and Benimaru are already staring down their own doppelgangers, and that may dominate the narrative in the next fight, while Shinra struggles to find his way back to the battlefield while shaking off his own villainous image. Shinra is the protagonist in an endgame fight, so he’s probably strong enough to help even Benimaru or Kurono fight off their own evil twins as someone who must prove all over again why he views himself a great hero for all.